Patterns of cortical thinning in different subgroups of schizophrenia

Background Alterations of cortical thickness have been shown in imaging studies of schizophrenia but it is unclear to what extent they are related to disease phenotype (including symptom profile) or other aspects such as genetic liability, disease onset and disease progression. Aims To test the hypothesis that cortical thinning would vary across different subgroups of patients with chronic schizophrenia, delineated according to their symptom profiles. Method We compared high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging data of 87 patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia with 108 controls to detect changes in cortical thickness across the entire brain (P<0.05, false discovery rate-adjusted). The patient group was divided into three subgroups, consisting of patients with predominantly negative, disorganised or paranoid symptoms. Results The negative symptoms subgroup showed the most extensive cortical thinning, whereas thinning in the other subgroups was focused in prefrontal and temporal cortical subregions. Conclusions Our findings support growing evidence of potential subtypes of schizophrenia that have different brain structural deficit profiles. Copyright and usage (C) The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015.